'Faithfulness' Tagged Posts
Daily Devotions
Psalm 85:8-9…“Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.” vs. 8 The psalmist craved to hear the word of the Lord, and evidently had a pretty good sense of what the Lord would say. Based on what we can assume were years of faithful living he knew that he would hear admonitions to seek peace in every circumstance. The…
Daily Devotions
Romans 9:3-5…“They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;” vs. 4 Paul was proud of his heritage, and he loved the Jewish people. He would gladly have forfeited his salvation for the sake of his “kindred according to the flesh.” They were the people of the promise, the chosen children of God and they were frittering away their glory because they refused to believe that…
Daily Devotions
Psalm 145:14-21…“The LORD is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings. The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” vss. 17-18 Humans have had a dickens of a time describing God, something that is more easily understood when we take the testimony of scripture seriously. Writers there consistently describe God as being beyond understanding. That’s because there are no words in any language that can capture…
Daily Devotions
Psalm 145:8-9, 14-17…“The LORD upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.” vs. 14 Since we live in a world that is both good and broken, it is good to know that the Lord upholds us in our brokenness. It’s not that God is simply content with our inability to walk in righteousness, but God actually raises us up and restores our intrinsic goodness. We saw this reality acted out in the ministry of Jesus,…
Daily Devotions
Isaiah 44:6-8…“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.” vs. 6 As the prophet brought the word of the Lord to the exiles in Babylon, he was well aware that there was an abundance of visible gods for the people to choose among. There was a well established pantheon of deities with Marduk as their chief. Temples for…
Daily Devotions
Psalm 145:11-14…“The LORD upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.” vs. 14 According to the scriptures, our world is both good and broken at the same time. That’s a truth we experience every day of our lives, And the psalmist tells us here that the One who brought this world into existence and who continues to sustain it, has a particular love for lifting up all who are falling and raising up all who…
Daily Devotions
Jeremiah 20:7-13…“If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” vs, 9 Jeremiah had been called to speak the Lord’s word to the rulers of Judah during the last years of the kingdom. What he had to say went squarely against the foreign policy of the king and was…
Daily Devotions
Psalm 100…“For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures for ever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” vs. 5 There are some religious folks in our time who are claiming that God hates evil and rejoices in the annihilation of our enemies. They base their tirades on passages from the Hebrew scriptures that describe the invasion of Canaan by the Hebrew tribes, where God is said to have ordered the deaths of all inhabitants, including women and children. Those…
Daily Devotions
1 Corinthians 1:5-9… “He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” vss. 8-9 Paul regularly encouraged people to prepare for the imminent return of Jesus so that they might be ready when that time came. Here he gives the impression that it will be possible for them to…
Daily Devotions
For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” vs. 6 2 Timothy 1:6-14 This verse will remind many believers of their confirmation day, that ritual in which confirmands receive the laying on of hands as they affirm their baptisms. The pastor places both…
Daily Devotions
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have; for he has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’” vs. 5 Hebrews 13:1-8 As the writer to the Hebrews concludes his letter to the Jews who had become Christians, he has some directions for how they shall live their lives. After mentioning the mutual love which binds them together, he advises hospitality toward strangers, a concern for those in prison and…
Daily Devotions
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea … Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them…” vss. 1, 5 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 Paul certainly was no Pollyanna. He knew from Hebrew history that most of the people of Israel, rescued from slavery in Egypt, had fallen away from the faith by the time they left the wilderness. Therefore he does not…
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